This is what greeted me as I got off the bus downtown. A friend who knows me well had teased me that I would ignore the Louvre for the trees outside, and for this day I did. In my defense, it was sunny and 75 degrees, and I just wanted to walk and paint.

I walked across the Seine on the Pont des Arts where people leave locks with messages written on them clipped to the bridge.

I painted Notre Dame from its side garden and then went on over the bridge to the Ile St. Louis where musicians were playing big band swing. How they got an upright piano out on the bridge I'll never know. I sat to listen and draw.

I also treated myself to a spinach and egg crepe in a creperie. I sketched the window into the kitchen as I sat there.

Finally I walked back to the Louvre and did a watercolor as well. A lovely first day in Paris.